Aenigma
by bretagnesade
Summary: They'll be fighting and she'll be dying and they can only save each other. House/OC/Wilson
1. Chapter 1

"You know even with yellow eyes, you are still the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," He spoke to her. She rolled her eyes towards the handsome doctor as she let him take more of her blood.

"Do you flirt with all your patients?" She asked.

"Only the pretty ones." He replied, ripping the needle from her flesh. She looked down and around, not really knowing where to go in her mind. One of the few pain free moments and she had to spend it in a bland hospital room with a handsome doctor who has the potential to destroy whatever was left of her life, who happened to be making passes at her. All she could do was stare.

"Your name is really pretty and really…foreign, do you go by a nickname?" The doctor asked, draining the red fluid from the syringe and into a vile before scribbling something on a pad of paper.

She smiled.

"I go by Katana, ignore the hyphen and the Katarzyna after it, my parents got a bit slap-happy." She explained, her eyes brightening a bit at the doctor's smile. He was about to open his mouth to reply before she cut him off. "So are you gonna tell me what's wrong with me or what?"

His mouth abruptly closed and her head tilted slightly, almost in questioning as he came closer to her.

"Did Dr. Patterson tell you who I was?" He asked softly, staring into her eyes, the color of a browning cake fresh from the oven in a sea of yellow bread from the jaundice she obtained. Katana shook her head, her other doctor told her she was going to send her to someone who actually could help her because instead of dragging her around, she admitted that she had no idea where to start or how to fix it. And that was devastating because Katana really liked her. She had more respect for her now for admitting she couldn't help her than animosity for the fact that she couldn't help her. But she never told her who she was seeing, she just said he's was the head of his field and if anyone could help her, it would be him.

"I'm the head of-"

"Hey Wilson, I'm gonna need you to run a SPECT scan for a patient ASAP," The man who burst through the door spoke bossily to the doctor in the lab coat. Katana scanned his tall frame, his soulful blue eyes and his rugged outward appearance and the arrogant look on his face that made her think he knew he was going to get it despite the fact that she was in there. She looked back to Dr. Wilson, biting his lip, glancing at her apologetically.

"House, I'm busy…if you can't see that then the only thing I can give you is an appointment with Jacobs for your glasses."

The doctor known as House, glanced at Katana, his eyes seeming to don a brighter shade of cerulean as they passed over her.

"Well, see that's what friends are for," He spoke, walking deep into the room, his cane prominent, his body limping on the right. "I'll take over for you and you do what I need you to do and then we can all go home." She said quietly, finishing loudly before clapping Wilson on the back.

"No, this is my patient House, I need to take care of her before I do anything else." He said boldly.

Katana didn't know how to react, she wanted to think it was a show but basing on the way Wilson was acting, this was a daily occurrence and it made her feel even more like an outsider and to top it off, her abdomen was giving her problems again.

House's blue eyes pierced her face before turning back to Wilson and grabbing him by the jacket, pushing him out of the door in midst of many colorful words and shouts. He leaned on the door as Wilson tried to get back in and shouted: "When I get my SPECT, you get your patient back, but I'll be finished with her by then, so just worry about my SPECT," before shutting the door and locking it. The doorknob rattled a bit before it stopped and when it did, House smiled and walked towards counter, no longer listening for his audio satisfaction. He grabbed the stool and rolled in front of Katana, beating his thighs in a quick little rhythm before speaking.

"So how does it feel having cancer?" He asked bluntly.

Katana's brows knitted together and she could feel her throat closing up. She blinked back tears and breathed deeply before answering but her voice still broke.

"I have cancer?"

His eyes narrowed a bit, as if he realized he did something wrong but decided to roll along with it. He looked at the door and then back at Katana.

"Why do you think you were in a room with the Head of Oncology? It's not because you have a cold," He spoke.

Katana narrowed her eyes at the obnoxious doctor, her head tilting once again.

"Where is it? Is it inoperable? What's gonna happen to me?" She asked, panicking, her abdomen hurting even worse due to the pressure her emotions has caused.

"Well…" House started, looking at her chart. "It seems you have abdominal pains so I'm assuming it's somewhere in there." His long finger went out to poke her torso. "Of course, we'd have to do a test before anything set in stone, but I'll bet you dinner Friday night that you have cancer." He said, a small smirk playing on his face.

Katana closed her eyes, smiling in disbelief.

"Excuse me?" She asked incredulously.

"I said-"

"I know what you said Dr. House and I would appreciate if you could get the hell out of here and bring Dr. Wilson back in." She scolded, her tone matching the coldness in her eyes.

"Okay, just in case you have tumors in your ears, I'm going to repeat what you heard fifteen minutes ago, Wilson can't come back in until he gives me my SPECT results." He said, spinning around in the stool.

"Then wait for them outside of the room."

"Well I told him I'd watch you,"

"I'm a big girl in case you didn't notice," She spat back, offending at the wording he used.

"A big girl…with cancer, now shut up and deal with it. You're gonna get a full CT/PET just to find where everything is and what can be done. Usually it's nothing but don't worry about that," He spoke, flashing his hand through the air, waving it off.

"Wait, are you saying my cancer is benign? That it'll be nothing?" Katana asked.

"No, I mean that there'd be nothing we could do for you, but really, don't worry about it." He repeated, flipping through her charts. "Katana-Katarzyna?" He questioned, reading through the thicket of papers on the clipboard. "Your parents fond of the letter K?"

Katana bit her tongue, trying hard not to lash out at the anti-conformist doctor.

Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the door.

"House," A deep voice called out. "He went into cardiac arrest! We stabilized him but his BP is still dropping."

House looked from her charts back into the deep browns of Katana before stepping up and unlocking the door.

"Until then, Ms. Giannis." House spoke before stepping out of the door, leaving Katana alone.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you to Lunar Knight :) 

"So about your patient…" House started, a slice of pizza leaving his mouth and waving in the air in one hand and in the other a stack of black sheets that he threw on the oak desk as he entered Wilson's office.

Wilson looked up from his paper work, a look of puzzlement on his face as House took his usual seat on the sofa. "Which one?

"The hot one," House responded, swallowing and ripping another piece of pizza off with his incisors. Wilson's head dipped as he tried to hide his smile.

"What about her?"

"So you know which one I'm talking about…I knew there was a reason you didn't want to leave,"

"Besides the fact that she's my patient?"

"Not anymore," House spoke, getting up. "Her CT came back and there aren't any tumors in her body, meaning that whatever is making her spleen explode is in my hands now."

"Every symptom she has points to cancer, House and until _I_ rule out tumors then she's still mine."

"Oh, I love it when you're jealous." House said, rolling his eyes.

"House, seriously! Now damn it, I have claims to her right now, if there's a problem with her kidneys then I'll call you, until then you stay away from her. Do you know she called me last night complaining about you?"

"They can never keep me out of their mind," House said, opening the door ready to leave.

"She wants you to stay away from her," Wilson spoke, standing up, catching House before he attempted to break out the door. "_I_ on the other hand want you to stop emotionally damaging my patients and then asking them to dinner," He spoke, his body now parallel to House, staring him down. House looked directly in the eyes of Wilson, chewing the last of his pizza and swallowing before speaking.

"Technically, I didn't ask her to dinner. I made a bet. And thank you for reminding me, the fact that there are no tumors in her body means that I have a date Friday night. Why can't you do this for me all the time?" He asked before maneuvering out the door, letting the door slam in Wilson's face, which let out a frustrated sigh before returning to his desk, looking at the sheets House had so hastily dropped on his desk. His face scrunched in confusion as he held the sheets at every possible angle in every possible, searching for anything that would keep her with him and not put her in House's jurisdiction.

But he couldn't.

House was right, her body was absent of tumors or any sort of neoplasm whatsoever, so her symptoms were a medical mystery.

He shut his eyes, placing his head on his folded forearms, resting there before thumping his forehead heavily on both of them before raising his hand to pick up the phone, dialing the number under Katana-Katarzyna Giannis.


	3. Chapter 3

Wilson pasted the shots of her body on the screen where she could see exactly what he was talking about. Almost hoping she could verify her condition and keep herself in his hands.

"You don't have cancer Katana," He spoke softly.

She smiled in spite of her self. It was a happy moment. She didn't have some nasty black tumor inside of her eating at her insides killing her with every passing second. Of course she was ecstatic. She just didn't understand why the doctor seemed upset. Sure, this was his specialty, yeah but if he was going to brood about her not having cancer, couldn't he at least not do it in front of her?

"You don't seem too happy about it," She called out, making his head snap up and a meek smile appear on his face. He seemed nervous; she could tell by the way his fingers gripped his hips as he stood across from her, watching her attentively.

"No dear, it's not that. It's amazing that you don't have cancer, but I know that you still feel sick and now that cancer isn't a diagnosis, something else is and we have to send you to someone who will know how to help you."

He took notice of her sigh, the roll of her eyes and the turn of her head not to face him, he also took note of the way she was holding herself, as if she was shielding herself from a cold temperature but he wasn't going to bring anything up if she didn't.

"Will anybody know what's wrong with me?" Katana asked softly, desperate for answers. She willed herself not to cry in front of a stranger doctor who obviously had a sweet spot for her. The pain in her head which was tolerable before she came in was now disgustingly worse as though her brain was pressing up against the cranium but she attributed to her high emotions and counted backwards from thirty five to calm herself down and it seemed to be working.

"Dr. House is the best in his field K-"

"Dr. House?" Katana asked, her eyes narrowing at the very memory of the gruff doctor. Everything about him came flooding back to her, his demeanor, his voice even the smell that intoxicated her when he was near. He couldn't be handling her case, she'd die from annoyance. He was the one who told her she had cancer and now suddenly he's going back on it? The last thing she wanted was him to be in charge of her medical file. She'd rather deal with Wilson. "No, no, no. Can't you do something? I want you to be my doctor." She explained heavily, her slender fingers pushing her thick hair behind her ears.

"I can't Katana, I wouldn't even know where to start," He explained, walking closer to her. The closer he got, the more he saw. Her skin was flushed and she was sweating despite the fact that she was holding herself tighter than she was before. "Are you cold?" He asked her finally, now seriously alert about her condition instead of living in rue about having to pass her on to House.

She nodded. "Yeah, I've been really cold since I woke up this morning. I even have on layers and it doesn't seem to be helping,"

Wilson hurried over to the drawer and pulled out a thermometer, holding her face as he asked her to open her mouth and stuck the rod under her tongue. He paced at bit as he waited to take out the thermometer and when the time was up and jerked it from her mouth, his fears realized.

Her temperature was 105.

He hurried over to the door, shouting for the nurse and lots of ice, who came running through the door in flash of pink scrubs.

Katana was confused, besides the fact that she's been cold for the past couple hours, she felt fine. There wasn't any problem as far as she could see, well besides the headache.

"Lie back sweetheart," Wilson called. She felt herself being lifted onto a gurney, a pitcher of cold water being poured on her and packs of ice being packed under her arms, groin and face. She was fuzzy, her headache was now pounding her head, her vision getting fuzzy as she was wheeled out of the room, Dr. Wilson's face being the last thing she saw before her vision went black.


	4. Chapter 4

As she came back to consciousness, all she saw was black. Her eyes glued together. She wanted to panic but she knew what happened to erratic people in hospitals. Doctors weren't shy about pumping a frail body with morphine so she calmed herself and as she did, she could hear a symphony of sounds: her heart monitor, the television, rather loudly, she thought. The sound of a slap echoed throughout the room and a cacophonous laugh erupted right after. Katana was annoyed because she knew exactly whose laugh it was. She let her thoughts flow in her mind a bit before she got angry. She thought maybe Dr. House never got the message from Dr. Wilson, after all, they are busy men. But busy men shouldn't be watching television in a patients' room, right? She fought to make a sound but her mouth was so dry that words died on her tongue and at the moment she thought of signaling her brain to tell her body to move, someone else intruded.

"What the hell, House?" She heard a deep voice call.

"Goddamn it, what happened to 114?" Wilson's voice sounded out, a fatigued, desperate voice, almost angry and though she would have loved to regain full use of her body and kick all three of them out of her room but she couldn't. Her body was in a dormant paralysis and she had to wait until it caught up with her mind.

"114 has made a speedy recovery unfortunately, meaning his family is visiting around this time. So that means my new favorite patient has become my lunch buddy," House said, followed by an immediate ruckus of paper.

"I can't condone this House, she has disappearing red blood cells and you chose to feed yourself McDonald's in her room!" Wilson screeched.

"No, if she had disappearing red blood cells, she would still be your patient. Something is eating her blood cells so therefore, I can pretty much do what I want." House fired back.

At that moment, Katana let out a cough. Not just any cough, she was choking, her mouth was dry and tears were washing away the glue that stuck her lids together. She tried to gasp for breath but she couldn't and a strong wheezing sound was running out with her cough. She opened her eyes to see all three men staring down at her. House, throwing his cane down, hastily reaches out to lay her back down.

"Should we get a prescription for codeine?" Katana heard the dark one ask, ready to tear down the hall at any minute to grab it. Suddenly, a rush of cold hit her body as House ripped down the covers of the bed and allowed her paper gown to be the only protection against the eyes watching her. He slowly put a hand on her belly, pressing down and sending a sharp pain throughout her torso, making her cough harder. All of the doctor's eyes got wider as they shared glances with each other.

"Either she's six months pregnant or she's got ascites." House spoke.

Katana looked down to see her belly swollen as if she has swallowed a soccer ball. The panic was inevitable and before she could think about getting up, her head was tilted back by House's thick hands and a tube was shoved down her throat by the other doctor as Wilson held down her flailing legs, loudly screaming her elevating heart rate to the others as she passed out from lack of air.


	5. Chapter 5

"It's not leukemia, damn it!" House screamed, slamming his cane against the whiteboard, startling everyone. "Her WBC is fine and an influx wouldn't explain her low RBC count and if I have to tell you the difference, go back to med school." He spoke, throwing a few Vicodin down his throat, the room going dead silent, everyone unable to handle his offensive outburst.

"You were the one who told her she did have cancer," Wilson stated.

"And I'm changing my mind." House said simply.

"House, listen-"

"No, you listen Wilson. Every symptom she has you make out to be cancer related, if she has a headache you'd tell me it was glioblastoma. Give me a break. We are dealing with something you don't see every day, so get creative. Chase, get an MRI, I want to see everything inside her body. Foreman, I want a CAT, because if it is cancer," House sent a sharp look toward Wilson who rolled his eyes in return. "-then it'd start in the brain." House finished his orders, popping up with a perk and walking down the hall. The men looked at each other before Wilson jumped after him.

"And what are you going to do? Get ready for your date?" Wilson asked crossly.

"Aww, you know I wish I could say I was going to dump her and go out with you but…there's no chance of that." House laughed, not slowing down as Wilson sped up to keep speaking.

"Oh, I forgot who I was talking to, the king of hypocrites. I hope you don't think you are the world's most desirable man because Cameron wants you." Wilson chucked nervously.

"Has nothing to do with Cameron. Cameron likes me for her own reasons and too many of them is the reason I will not date her." House replied, turning a corner.

"You know what buddy?" Wilson started sweetly. "I absolutely agree, but it would be unethical of you to date a patient, so why don't you just hand her over to me and then get ready for your date."

"You know why I'm not going to do that?" House said, coming to a halt to face Wilson.

"Why not?" Wilson asked, out of breath from the jog he endured.

"Because she doesn't have cancer!" He screamed, leaving an exhausted Wilson in the middle of the hallways as he strolled to her room. Once he got there, he peaked in and smiled a grin as wide as Texas when he saw that she was sleep. He then made his way over to the janitor's closet, tucking away the peach candles he hid in the lining of his jacket, he then hurried back to her room, arranging the candles along the room, lighting each of them and then going over to the light switch. He looked at his masterpiece one more time before he heard:

"What are you doing Dr. House?"

And then he turned off the light.

Six candles surrounded the room casting a pink-orange glow to the room. Katana looked around, a bit woozy from her medication. "What do you think you are doing?" She asked again. House saying nothing in his stride to the chair next to her.

"It's Friday." He spoke.

"And I don't have cancer," She smiled, looking at House's defined face in the luminescent glow.

"But I'm here, you are here. It's fate." He said goofily, pulling out a bottle of wine and two champagne flutes.

"You are going to give me alcohol while you give me a diuretic? The ascites must be pretty bad, huh?" She joked.

"Relax, it's apple juice." He said, pouring the contents of the bottle into the glass. He set one of the table for her and held his in his left hand while he sent the bottle down. Peering down at her, he spoke: "Why aren't you such a bitch now?" He asked. "I liked that feistiness, it's sexy." He spoke.

She rolled her eyes, a smile peaking out of her lips. "I'm not always that bad of a person. Being in pain tends to bring out the worst in people, but I don't want you to be my doctor. That hasn't changed."

"I'm pretty sure if you got to know me, you'd like me," House spoke.

"Eh," Katana said, sitting up, grabbing her glass, sniffing it before sipping it and deciding it was indeed, apple juice. "So are you here to just bullshit or are you going to tell me what's wrong with me?" She said, locking her eyes to his. House watched the flames flicker off her skin, making her appear flawless, her eyes like glass and her hair like satin. He turned away from her and then turned back, speaking softly.

"We could do both."

"And what is this? House, you better have a damn good explanation!" Cuddy's voice cut through the sensual atmosphere of the room, the sharp white lights cutting through the ambience and Wilson's face making the situation more humorous than anything.

"Is that wine?" Wilson exclaimed once getting a full look at everything around him. Cuddy's eyes widened as she looked incredulously at House.

"It's apple juice." He said simply.

"My office, now." She demanded, turning on her red heels while Wilson stood there, shaking his head.

"She said now, Greg." Wilson repeated, watching House hard until he finally got up, a tilted salute to Katana and left the room, candles still burning.


	6. Chapter 6

"Why is it that no matter what kind of case you have, you always have to make an ass of yourself?" Cuddy asked, hands on her hips, glaring at House.

"Well, I can admit, I'm a huge ass. Which is more than I can say for yours, which is deflating by the second," House struck back, leaning forward on his cane. Cuddy's eyes bulged and the rolled to the left at the insult before folding her arms across her chest.

"House-" Wilson began to interject but was sharply cut off by House.

"I don't talk to snitches." He spoke, tilting his head up, rolling his eyes around the room. Wilson rolled his eyes, running a hand through his hair before smiling in defeat, huffing and sitting back on the couch. House's blue eyes rolled forward to look at the hard look on the face of his boss.

"I'm handing her to Andrews and that's the end of it." Her voice cut through the silence like a hot knife through a stick of butter, getting a rise out of both men, most obviously Wilson who rose to his feet. He had only told Cuddy so that he could get her to run over her charts again and assume that she had some type of cancer that nobody was finding and send Katana back to him. With Dr. Andrews handling her, there would be no reason for Wilson to check on her or even see her for that manner.

"Goddamn it!" House shouted, pounding his cane on the carpeted floor of her office. "Send her to Andrews and you might as well just sign her death certificate now."

Cuddy huffed. "Splenomegaly, abcites, jaundice? House, she clearly has cirrhosis and that isn't something you are in charge of," She spat.

"She doesn't have a liver problem, you imbeciles!"

"I'm sure you remember Andrews specializes in hepatology? Also known as the organs of the body you didn't study-"

"If she had cirrhosis, where's her enlarged liver?" House turned, snapping on Wilson. "Her estrogen counts are normal,"

"Then it's her gallbladder," Cuddy breathed, throwing her hands up. She had never seen House so engaged and because of a patient no less.

"Well we won't actually know for about 12 hours…" House stated, looking at the clock above the window and then back down at the confused faces in the room. A smug expression crossed his face and he put his hand out violently before saying: "The apple juice…duh." House sighed when nobody understood before he straightened up. "Well, the chat has been lovely but I must go check on Ms. Giannis."

"What the hell don't you understand about you being off this case?" Cuddy asked as the tall doctor turned his back on her, after her words, he swiftly turned back around. "The fact that I know you are attracted to this lady makes both of you a problem, the best thing I can do for her is take her to Tim."

"I'm not attracted to her," Wilson flustered.

"Oh shut up, if you weren't, you wouldn't have told Mom," House shot back, pointing his cane at Cuddy. His cell phone began to vibrate, leaning for leverage on his cane, he flipped open his cell phone, listening to the words being spoken before flipping the phone shut. "And Mom? In the meantime, I've got a hot patient to help."

House walked out of the office, eyes trailing behind him. He spotted Cameron before looking at his watch.

"Cameron!" He shouted, her head quickly turning to face him from the second floor. "Re-do her SPECT scan and I want all the blood she'll let you take."


End file.
